Hello my name is Simon, aged 52, and I am a struggling learner.
I joined Justin Guitar about 18 months ago and whizzed through the ‘Beginner Module’ Module 1 and then stagnated and went around in circles for many months until I just stopped playing and lost all the callouses on my fingers.
I got into bad habits and didnt really undersatnd what I was doing, got sidetracked with videos way in advance of me and started trying to play simple acoustic Oasis stuff, but this was a bad idea as I have no strumming skills or rhythm.
three weeks ago I decide to restart the whole course and I am currently happy with my first three chords and I am up to chord changes around 75 in one minute.
I am trying to tap my foot while playing but it can get a bit confusing at times and it hurts my leg.
So here I am playing the three chord songs, I am not sure if I am supposed to be swinging my arm up and down all the time and only strumming on the 1s or whether I should only be strumming down everything there is a chord to strum.
Not having face to face can be a struggle as well as the over 50 thing lol.
Anyway here I am, I have plenty of guitars to play as I found myself drowning delightfully in the who story that is guitar, learning about tonewoods, the cowboys of the American West and that Martin sound, I have learnt much more about the subject than I have playing.
I need to fix that, perhaps joing this forum will assist pushing me forward.
Hi Simon good to see you decided to reset. It pays dividends when you are stuck or have lost your way. On the strumming question keep your arm moving in time with the quarter notes of each song ie down on beats 1 2 3 4. Listen to the drum track and stick with the kick snare kick snate which is heart beat of all songs. And to enforce this rhythm actually count out 1 2 3 4. If the chord is only played on beat 1 count that out loud and 2 3 4 a bit quieter. Don’t worry too much about tapping feet yet. Get these fundamentals down and come back to tapping. But keep that arm moving. Simples.
Hey Simon, great to hear from you. I started playing 14 years ago at the age of 53 so can relate to your story. There were times, esp when I played with others in the early days and saw how much they tapped their feet and while I sometimes could do it, other times it just didn’t work for me. Fast forward to now, I don’t always tap my foot but there are plenty of times it just happens without me thinking of it.
I tried early on to use a metronome and it sucked all the fun out of my learning to play. Tried again a few months later, same thing. Then tried again maybe another 6 months out and it worked. Now I have a Boss DR-01S drum machine (same thing as metronome) playing on most of my practice. You’ll get there.
Hi Simon, welcome to the community. It sounds like you have the chord changes for D A and E mastered. It is just as important to work on the strumming in grade 1. I’ve repeated grade 1 several times to focus on strumming
To help you with practice you might want to look at Justin’s Nitsuj practice videos where Justin re-learns to play the guitar left handed. It helped me to see practices done by Justin.
Good luck Simon. I hope you are able to stick with it. Just keep plugging away and remember to have fun. The learning never ends so you just have to balance fun/practice.
I found foot tapping very difficult, totally threw me, brain overload. Chords, strumming and now foot tapping as well. It came more gradually with more experience and automation of the first two.
Thanks for coming back, I will relax the foot a little and keep pushing with the strumming, I ended up learning 10 chords previously but not the strumming, so thats where it went wrong for me, I will keep the arm moving going forward
Aah the dreaded metronome, I have an old school wind up version, yup that went back on the shelf very quickly, talk about add marmite to my cheese sandwich.
Thanks for that link, I am aware of Justins left handed adventure, perhaps the slower struggle from the man may just resonate with me, I will use that link later today, thanks
Oh Simon, this sounds so familiar. First off, we are all “struggling learners” until we’re not, and there is no shortcut around that. If strumming is a challenge (being a lefty playing right-handed it is for me), you should consider taking Justin’s Strumming SOS course at some point. It is well worth the small cost. In the meantime, learn to live your callouses!
I am not alone
All good with the callouses I even sand them down now like a good little boy I have seen the SOS course, so will see how I get on after completeing the first beginner level once again.
100% understand. Most important is you keep your practice fun to where you want to and regularly (daily) pick up the guitar. The metronome is a great thing, as are many other things, but only when you are ready for it.
I realized how much I needed it when I got together with a friend who was far more experienced than I was. We played a song together which I thought when well at his place. When we finished I asked him what he thought and he said you were increasing in speed throughout the song and he was trying to pull me back. That did come as a bit of a shock to me. Sigh.
So I went away and practiced that song diligently with a metronome. Probably played it 30 or more times before rehearsing with him again. At the end of the 2nd rehearsal of that song I asked him how the tempo was, he said perfect, you were steady all the way. I couldn’t have reached that steadiness without the metronome.
Hello Simon, at 65 years young, I got you beat by 13 years. The first year is the hardest as it is easy to lose motivation. I practice almost every day. Most days to improve but sometime just to have fun. This is what works for me, a mix of study and fun. The fun days are mostly playing along with YouTube videos and experimenting with different strumming patterns. The study days are scales and learning new chords.
Good luck and have fun
David
Hi Simon. Welcome. Best advice I got and ignored, was learn some of those three song chords by heart. Lyrics, strum pattern, chord progression. And play them, daily. Yes, they might not sound ‘like the real thing’ but you’re making music. And these are the songs you’ll go back to in a few months or years and add new rhythm, new embellishments and new tricks.
